“As captain of the team I say we are close and ready to win,” Silva says. “We know that it is possible although, obviously, we also know that it is not easy. But I have a lot of confidence that PSG has the quality to go all the way. I know the quality of this team, I am very proud of this team. We can do it.”

Silva wears the armband at PSG with a rare pride, as rare as it is to get an audience with a world superstar of a player. It clearly means a lot to the thoughtful Brazilian to captain a side that contains the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ángel Di María, Marco Verratti and David Luiz.

“If you are captain of a great team like Paris St-Germain there are lots of players like Zlatan, players who are known by everybody. So to be captain of that team gives you respect and, in football, respect is very important,” Silva says before giving an insight into his own core strength.

“When I speak everyone listens and that gives me pleasure – even Zlatan, who has got a strong personality. When I talk he listens to me and I explain why he has got to do this or that.”

Then there is a flash of humour: “In saying that when I look at him and his face is a bit ‘closed’, then I don’t speak because I know he’s in a bad mood! But that just means it’s important when you know your team-mates. And I know him well. We played together at [AC] Milan also and I know when I need to speak to him and when I need to give him strength.”

It is interesting that during this exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, the only one he is conducting ahead of PSG’s tie against Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League, Silva mentions Ibrahimovic, who moved to France from Milan at the same time as him, on several occasions.

“I speak about Zlatan a lot because he’s a reference for us,” Silva says. “Not just for us but in world football. He’s a reference. Everyone who talks about PSG – then the first player they mention is Zlatan. And especially now when he is at the end of his contract [which expires this summer for the 34-year-old striker]. Everyone talks about him a lot. He’s had a great career and I am sure that, for the time being, he wants to finish it well here at PSG and to do that he needs to win the Champions League. And I will do everything to try and help him do that. And that’s why I talk about him so much.”

To reach the quarter-finals PSG must overcome Chelsea as they did last season when, in an epic encounter at the same stage of the competition, Ibrahimovic was harshly sent off at Stamford Bridge. PSG then played 90 minutes – 60 minutes of normal time and 30 of extra time – with 10 men before prevailing on away goals. It was Silva who scored the decisive, powerful header, in the 114th minute, leaping high above John Terry in the 2-2 draw, and he is relishing the saga’s third chapter.

“It’s a magnificent draw because I think we already know this team, Chelsea, quite well,” he states, speaking in French, through a translator, at the club’s training ground on the edges of the forest that spreads onto the picturesque, well-heeled, commuter town of Saint-Germain-en-Laye outside Paris. “They [Chelsea] have got a lot of Brazilian players, it’s not far from Paris and there is already the rivalry,” Silva says ahead of the first leg in Paris tomorrow.

Rivalry? “Yes, it’s the third time we have faced them in three years. We lost the first time we played Chelsea [in the quarter-finals in 2014, after which Silva says he had a sleepless night] and then we won the second time and this is the third. So I think you can talk about it being a rivalry between us.”

There is a warning for Chelsea, also. “I think we are a lot better now [than last year],” Silva states. PSG certainly appear irrepressible, with the 31-year-old defender having returned to fitness and the expectation that the team can go through their domestic season unbeaten. PSG are already an extraordinary 24 points clear in Ligue 1 and have not lost in 34 league matches with a record of 22 wins and four draws this season.

“I think the team needs the Champions League but we play in a lot more concentrated way in the French league because if we can win the league quickly then there is the chance to rest some of our players so they can just play in the Champions League,” Silva says. “We want to win the league, the two cups and then the Champions League. We are already in the final of the League Cup and are well-placed in the league and can finish it quickly.”

Being so dominant in France does, however, pose its problems, with PSG having won a treble last season and heading for a fourth straight league title. “It is difficult,” Silva says. “When you are accustomed to winning, when you are used to winning, then afterwards you tend not to have the same level of concentration.

“Sometimes you go into the games thinking you have already won because you are so strong. But we will stay strong because we have not yet won the Champions League. We have not succeeded in winning the one we are dreaming of. And I think that it is why we will continue to keep winning. Everyone says that Paris is strong but we need to show our strong face to Europe, to the world. If we don’t win the Champions League and keep winning in France then people will say ‘they are not ready to win it yet’. But, as captain, I say we are ready. I can see in the players’ faces that they are hungry for victory, for success. And they really want to make history for this club. So we are ready.”

The signing of Di María has made a difference to an outstanding squad already brimming with stars and attacking quality. “I think for a team that has a dream to fulfil, which is the Champions League, there is a need to have a player like Di María,” Silva says. “He can make the difference, also. Even if we already have Zlatan, Cavani, Lucas, brilliant players, we need even more great players and Di María is that. He causes a lot of problems for our opponents. He’s incredibly quick, he has an eye for goal, he fights for the ball, he’s strong and that’s why he brings so many qualities to the team.”

Di María still feels the scars of a terribly disappointing season at Manchester United. Does the Argentinean have a point to prove to English football? “Maybe, maybe,” Silva says. “With Di María the problem was that he did not have a lot of opportunities to play in the English league and it is very different from all the other leagues. I think when you come into a team you need a group that is going to help you to improve your game and that did not happen at Manchester (United) and he was also injured a lot, so he really did not get enough opportunities and he lost confidence.

“Here his confidence is really high. At PSG he is that player who can make the difference. Everyone says that Paris is magical but here is a player who is magical and in Di María, even if we have got Zlatan, he will make that difference.”

Silva has not played for an English club and is not hugely flattering as to what the Premier League has to offer: “It is a very strong, physical style of play with a lot of balls played high in the air. The players are very tall. And when the ball is on the ground it is played with a great intensity. The referees let it go – they don’t call a normal foul. They let play continue. For us defenders it is magnificent to play like that! But it is more difficult for the attacking players.”

Silva also quickly dismisses the reports, emanating from Brazil, that he is interested in signing for Chelsea. He, most definitely, wants to see out his career at PSG, where he is contracted until 2018 at present. “No, no. It has come from Brazil but it is not true,” he says of the Chelsea rumour. “I want to finish my career here.”

Nevertheless, joining PSG was a big decision for Silva. It took the ambitious, wealthy club six months to convince him, signing the Brazilian for £36 million, then a world-record for a defender, after the final of the 2012 Olympics in London when they beat off the interest of Barcelona.

“Paris will be proud of him,” said PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, with the-then coach Carlo Ancelotti making him captain.

Paris is, most definitely, very proud of O Monstro – The Monster, as Silva is known because of his physical power and speed. He has been named, for the third year running, in the Fifa FIFPro World XI – selected from a poll of 20,000 professional players – alongside Sergio Ramos and was the only PSG player chosen. There was no-one from the Premier League.

Another Brazilian who is in the Premier League, though, is Alexandre Pato, who signed for Chelsea from Corinthians in the January transfer window. Pato is working hard to regain his match fitness and is desperate to be involved against PSG.

“I know him very well; he’s my friend,” Silva says. “We played together at AC Milan for three years and Pato has incredible quality. He’s been through a lot of difficulties and it is good to see him back in Europe.

“I think he can make the difference for Chelsea, I really do. Because he is strong on his right foot, his left foot and he is quick. Very quick. That’s why I think Chelsea have made a good choice.

“It’s difficult as a player once you have gone back to Brazil to get that second chance in Europe. Sometimes you only get one chance. I think European clubs need to see exactly how you play. But I think he had a really good season with Sao Paulo [on loan] and that’s why Chelsea have taken him because he’s a really great player. Believe me.”

Still Silva remains confident that PSG will be victorious in the forthcoming tie. “The objective is to win the Champions League,” he says. “Everybody knows that. We are under pressure. It’s a good pressure because we know we have a very good team and that’s why we think we’ve got a really good chance this year. Maybe we can reach the semi-final or make it all the way through to the final. Why not? We have this match against Chelsea so let’s see what happens.”